West Indies are hoping for the lady luck to shine upon them at their opening match against Ireland for the World Twenty20 this year. The hosts are planning to reap an early victory to increase their probabilities. However Ireland can find solace in the fact that the West Indies are not in their regular consistent form with Chris Gayle, in particular, being far inconsistent.
Gayle is widely remembered for slamming a remarkable 115 against South Africa at the debut season of the World Twentt20 championships in 2007. The West Indies skipper also scored 27 runs off a single over by Australian pacer Brett Lee in last year’s duel. It has been quite some time, six years to be precise, since the team has won any major championship title, much to the dismay of their fans and countrymen. “We have a very good chance of winning this competition. We are at home and that gives us an advantage,” said Ramnaresh Sarwan. He further added, “What is important is that we play as a team and try and support each other as much as we can, whether it’s in the field or when we are batting or bowling. We hope we can do it on a consistent basis.”
Ireland is currently coached under a former West Indies batsman, Phil Simmons who firmly believes in his team, “I think it’s easier to pull off a shock in Twenty20 because recovery time is less than in 50 overs. We have played that little bit more Twenty20 than we had going into the last World Cup - so we are slightly wiser about Twenty20 cricket. That has to be a good thing.”